Unpack kit and check contents.

A handy list is printed on the bag's label.

The chip is hidden in here! Be careful, it's sensitive to static.

Solder the 10k resistor

First you need to solder the resistors (24 total in this kit!). We start with the 10k resistor, it is coloured Brown Black Orange Gold. Bend the legs to 90 degrees from the body at either end of the resistor body, then insert in resistor slot R5. As resistors have no polarity you can insert them either way around.

Flip over the board and push the resistor flush to the PCB from the under side, then pull the legs out to the sides to hold the resistor in place.

You are now ready to solder in place. Bring your iron so it is touching both the lead and the metal of the hole it is coming through. Apply solder to where the lead and the hole meet. You don't need much to make a good connection.

With your wire cutters, snip the excess wire from as close to the top of the solder joint as you can.

Nice and flush, but not cutting off the solder too!

Both done.

Solder 2 LED resistors

Now we do the same for the current limiting resistors for the 2 leds. These are coloured Green Blue Black Gold and go in slot R1 and R4.

Use the same bend out technique.

Remember to heat both the pad and the lead with your iron.

Both done and ready to snip.

Solder 2 3.3k resistors

You need 2 3.3K Ohms resistors, they are coloured Orange Orange Red and go in slots R2 and R3.

These resistors control the Record and Playback buttons.

Solder 2 LEDs

There are 2 status LEDs on the MiniStylophone, they are both the same and can go in either LED1 or LED2.

Leds are polarised and MUST go in the correct way around.

Your positive lead is the longer of the 2 and must go in the hole closest to the top of the PCB as shown in this photo.

Both LEDs are the same way around.

Use the same method as the resistors to ensure a flush fit to the PCB.

Solder the buzzer

The buzzer is not polarised and can go in either way around, it fits in in the top middle of the board within the large circle.

Again use the bending of the legs trick to keep it nicely in place.

Solder 19 1K resistors!

Now we get to the 19 1K resistors, they will be in one big strip and will be coloured Brown Black Red.

They fit in this row of holes. As you can see in the photo they sit differently to the rest of the resistors, vertically!

Its not as difficult as it may look, here is how you bend it:

Try soldering one...

...then another.

If you're happy, you can insert quite a few at a time and solder them in one go, it speeds up making the kit!

Solder the IC socket

Next is the IC socket, this socket stops you having to worry about soldering your precious ATTINY13 and makes it easy if you want to take it out to reprogram it! Make sure to line up the notch in the plastic with the outline on the PCB.

The bending legs trick may not work with this component. You will need to hold the part from underneath. But remember, the pin your soldering will get very hot, make sure not to hold it by that pin.

If you use this method, solder on of the end pins, then its diagonal opposite, this will hold it in place and not require you to hold it for the rest.

Trim wire

Next we must prepare the stylus for your stylophone!

Strip a small amount off of each end, ~5mm.

Then hold your iron on the exposed metal, touch your solder to the wire and apply a small amount to the wire.

Solder wire

Strip a small amount from the other end of the wire.

Now insert that end into the hole marked P and solder it in.

Snip and tin battery box leads

Cut down your black and white power cables coming out of the battery box to about 8cm.

Next trim back ~5mm and tin as you did for the stylus.

Solder to board

Insert the red wire into the hole marked + and black into -...

...and solder them in.

Insert batteries

Close it up

Make sure the battery box is switched off first.

Put on the battery cover and screw it on.

Insert the ATTINY13 IC

WARNING!
You must discharge your static before touching the chip as you could cause it to get damaged and not work. Ground yourself first by touching something connected to earth.

With the power off insert the ATTINY13A into the IC socket, make sure that the dot denoting pin one is on the same end as the notch in the IC socket as shown in the photo. Inserting it the other way is bad!

Turn on and test

It's time to turn on your MiniStylophone and test it!
SQUEEE!

On start-up it may beep several times as it checks it recording memory, once this is complete the right led will light up red and it will be ready to play tunes. Use the stylus to touch the pads, you should get a different note. If you get the same notes for different keys or some keys don't work at all, check your solder joints for the 1k resistors as you may have bridges between the pins.

Once you're happy with that, touch and release the REC pad, the right led will light and your now in record mode. You can touch notes one by one, and the tune will be recorded into memory, you can record up to 60 notes (it uses most of the chips eprom memory to do this), you can come out of recording mode by pressing the REC pad again and the right led will turn off. Or you will be taken out of record mode automatically if you reach the limit for notes you can record.

To play this back just hit the PLAY pad and the tune will play back, you can't do anything until it is done.

If either of these 2 pads don't work check your solder joints for errors.

Stick on sticky pad and stick PCB to battery box

Now that your happy your kit works you can attach the PCB to the battery box with the sticky pad provided. This makes it one self contained unit.

Stick on sticky pad...

...and stick PCB to battery box.

Enjoy!

Congratulations, you just finished the first kit from ElectricLaboratory!

Remember that all our kits are openhardware and opensource, so you can take the kit to the next level. How about adding in more notes, or reprogramming the chip to make it do more? You can find all the code and schematics here!